(PHILADELPHIA) – Key national and international players on the front lines of diabetes research, care and prevention will descend on Philadelphia for the First Annual Diabetes Symposium: New Advances and Innovations, a one-day symposium on advancing patient care on Friday, September 28, from 7:30 am to 5:30 pm in the Dorrance H. Hamilton Building, Connelly Auditorium on the Thomas Jefferson University campus.

The diabetes epidemic has created a national challenge for practitioners to deliver care to the millions affected and prevention education to slow the growth of this deadly disease. Nationally, 8.3 percent of the population is affected by diabetes with 1.9 million new adult cases diagnosed in 2010, and rising.

The symposium will tackle such issues as diabetes education, inpatient diabetes management, insulin pumps and continuous glucose sensors, the benefits and side effects of diabetes drugs and the controversies surrounding diabetes drugs, comparing fad diets and the scientific data behind them, and the diabetes landscape in the next decade through a series of lectures and panel discussions.

“We have developed a program that encourages endocrinologists, primary care and family physicians, nurse practitioners, certified diabetes educators, dieticians and nurses to share strategies and best practices that have led to better outcomes for their patients,” says Serge Jabbour, MD, Professor of Medicine, Jefferson Medical College and Director of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolic Disease at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and course director for the symposium with Jeffrey L. Miller, MD, Professor of Medicine, Jefferson. “Improving patient outcomes requires a multifaceted approach, starting with individualized glycemic control, appropriate selection of therapies and management of various comorbid conditions, such as hypertension, dyslipidemia and obesity.”

Featured speakers include:

David Nathan, MD, professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Director of the General Clinical Research Center and the Diabetes Center at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Nathan was a pioneer in the development of intensive therapies for diabetes and is currently chairman of the Diabetes Prevention Program, an NIH-sponsored multicenter trial to prevent Type 2 diabetes. He will speak on Glycemic Goals: An Ever-Moving Target.

Julio Rosenstock, MD, director of the Dallas Diabetes and Endocrine Center and clinical professor of medicine at University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at Dallas. Dr. Rosenstock has published extensively on early insulin intervention and combination strategies to reach glycemic targets in Type 2 diabetes. His lecture will address Consenus Treatment for Type 2 Diabetes: ADA, AACE, or “No Consensus”.

Vivian Fonseca, MD, Tullis-Tulane Alumni Chair of Diabetes and professor of Medicine at Tulane University School of Medicine who will address Diabetes in the Next Decade; Irl B. Hirsch, MD, professor of Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine, will discuss insulin pumps and continuous glucose sensors; Donna Tomky, MSN, RN, ANP-C, CDE, a diabetes education and clinical management professional with over 25 years' experience. She has a special interest in intensive insulin therapy and insulin pumps and is President of the American Association of Diabetes Educators for 2011. She will speak on Diabetes Education: Looking through the Kaleidoscope and Silvio E. Inzucchi, MD, professor of Medicine, Yale College of Medicine and director of the Yale Diabetes Center who will close out the program with his lecture, Glucose Control in the Hospital: The Swinging Pendulum.

“Diabetes remains a leading cause of death in the US and a major cause of cardiovascular disease—one of the few that is in large part, preventable,” says Dr. Jabbour. “We hope that our symposium will help practicing physicians understand better the challenges in treating diabetes and learn how the most up-to-date information in this rapidly evolving field”.